It has already begun

The grass cutting. The soul-sucking task that will take up every moment of our spare time from now until late October. If we're lucky. Sometimes it goes right on up to Thanksgiving if its a warm fall. Hell, sometimes we have a HOT, sweaty fall, so of course there is still grass to mow. I guess its true that everything comes at a price. We want to live out of town, away from the 'burbs, and neighbors living in our back pockets. And so we mow acres and acres of grass......and when I say "WE", I really do mean "We". I take the smaller riding lawnmower, and he gets on the big tractor with the attached mower, and it still takes us a good portion of a day to get through it all. Today was the first mowing of the season. Oh well. To cheer myself up from the task at hand, I am posting a borrowed pic of "Frog Kitty"....HAHA.

Let's Go Bowling

We had a little fun last night. Our local AMF Bowling Alley offers a decent discount for member's of our gym on Thursdays. Its $7.50 per person, shoes included, for an unlimited number of games. Bruce, Stephen, Hannia, and I decided to go try it out. Thursdays are also Yoga night, so Hannia and I had to rush home from that class, change out of sweaty yoga clothes in a big hurry, and head to the bowling alley without any dinner, but we made it. I honestly have not been bowling in I can't tell you how long. I know the kids had several bowling parties back in maybe middle school....? My kids are 24 and 25 if that tells you anything. But still, we have played countless games of bowling on our Wii, so we all felt pretty confident that we would do reasonably well at the real thing. Guess what? Wii bowling and real bowling are 2 entirely different animals. We all basically sucked, and that became painfully obvious by our first frame. Zeros, gutter balls...need I say more?

But because we were all clearly sucking we decided to just go with it and have some fun. Oh there were some serious bowlers there. People who come in wheeling their professional looking little bag with their own personal ball and shoes. But whatever. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there was a decent bar and grill there. The grill was painfully, almost unbearably SLOW. We waited an eternity for popcorn. But when the food got there, it was better than we expected. Bruce went ahead and started a running tab, so we could just go up and get stuff whenever the mood struck us, so that part was nice. We went through several pitcher's of beer, and the beer was good and cold. We got hungry and ordered a pizza, and although it took forever to get to our table, it was pretty tasty. I was expecting some kind of frozen pizza crap, but this was decent. Or else we were all just really hungry and a little bit tipsy, but either way, we perceived the pizza to be good, so I guess its all the same.

We had a whole lot of laughs. Bruce sneaked up behind Stephen a couple of times to try and push him just as he was releasing the ball. That backfired on him big time.
Stephen decided to pay him back. When Bruce was up there about to take his turn, Stephen yelled really loudly "Don't MESS UP!" Apparently, it startled Bruce so bad that he slipped and fell on his rear end right there on our lane. We laughed until we were about to choke when that happened. He didn't get hurt, which is a good thing because we were all laughing too hard to ask him if he was Ok. He was laughing too, so its all good.

Anyway, noone begged any of us to join their bowling league or anything like that. But we had a really good time, so I think we will probably go back again and see if practice will improve our game. Clearly the Wii is NO help at all.

Tea Time

Now this is MY cup of tea. I totally "borrowed" this picture from some random website, but it made me smile. How cute are those tiny little kitty faces?????

Heirloom plants

I have an aloe plant, well actually more like "plants" that all came from a single sprig of an aloe plant that sat in my Grandmother's kitchen window for as long as I can remember. She gave me that sprig when we got married, and it has multiplied to the point that I have trouble accommodating all the aloe. I have given both the kids aloe to carry on the tradition of the family "heirloom" aloe. My Grandmother has been gone now for 9 years, but the aloe still thrives.

And now we have another family heirloom plant. I can't remember what it's called, so if anybody recognizes it, please tell me. Barb gave me a couple of sprigs last summer, and it has really taken off. It seems to like the light in our kitchen. And yesterday, as I was watering all the plants, I saw this single flower on it. I thought it was so pretty that I had to take a picture. As it grows, I may have to force pieces of this on my kids, so we can carry on another heirloom line. Really, though, if you know the name of this plant, please tell me.

Look at my Belly

Vixen showing off her shaved belly and scar. Poor little thing. That's her favorite blue blanket she is cuddled up on. Even with the belly, she is still a beauty.

The vet sent her home in a huge cage. She has a small cat carrier, but she was too agitated after the surgery to even begin to try to move her into her own cage. This morning I had a million errands to run, including taking that big cage back to the vet. When I picked it up to put it in the car, Vixen took off in a big hurry. She was NOT going to be tricked into going back to that place again.

Helpers

As you can see, the goats are very helpful when it comes to working in the yard. Take note of the bush in the background. It used to be a huge, full-sized hedge. The goats have eaten the entire bottom half of it as far up as they can reach when standing on their hind legs. Its going to make mowing around it a lot easier, thats for sure. Chaucer has a thing for standing in the wheelbarrow. I don't know why. It makes him feel big and tall, I guess.

That big blue container is full of amaryllis bulbs that Bruce dug up out of the backyard. Apparently, Amaryllis is not good for goats to eat, so we needed to get it out of there before it could start to bloom again. Now its got to be replanted. And that tub is FULL of bulbs. Those plants had not been thinned out and separated in God knows how many years. We've got white amaryllis coming out of our ears. But not in the backyard anymore. I am pretty sure the amaryllis would suffer the same fate as that poor bush if we left it there. Even if it did make them sick......

Happy Spring...

Ok, yeah, I realize the beginning of spring was actually on Friday, but I am running a bit late. So sue me. I am happy to see Spring this year if only because we have had a really rainy, gray winter. It was warm up through December, but the next 2 and a half months were cold and dreary. Today, however, its mid-60's and sunny and it feels fantastic. I don't relish the idea of summer, with all that heat and humidity, but for this moment, just for today, I am not going to think about it. I will pretend its going to be comfortably warm, and sunny forever.

Anyway, Vixen is doing a whole lot better. She is almost back to normal again. She's is not quite as rambunctious just yet, but then again, she is still on pain meds for another day or so. She sleeps a lot. But her sweet personality is back. "Ketamine-induced-psychosis" kitty is gone. Hopefully for good. She wasn't very nice to live with.

I seem to have caught yet another cold. Its not too bad, yet. It could possibly be allergies, with all the springtime blooming going on around here. I haven't decided just yet which it is. I feel slightly crappy, but not downright miserable. Maybe I will go pick up some claritin and see if that helps. In the meantime, just because its so pretty outside, we are doing some yardwork. I don't think that is helping the situation with the cold/allergies, but its too nice to stay inside, so I am just going to deal with it.